With those words, Duan Mengrui vanished into the night, leaving behind the Golden Silkworm Gu Master staring blankly at Zhan Feng's corpse on the ground.
After a long while, he let out a sigh of sorrow.
"Enough, enough, it seems this war is unavoidable. Someone, send a message back to the sect, summon a few Gu Masters guarding there to come and assist. Tonight, I will bathe Cyan Bamboo Ridge in blood!"
As he spoke, the eyes of the Golden Silkworm Gu Master turned red.
No matter who the person behind the scenes was, he had no retreat left.
Unless he was willing to give up on the precious iron mine he had painstakingly discovered and excavated, tonight's battle was inevitable.
Because last night's events could barely be explained away as coincidences or unusual incidents, but today even Zhan Feng was dead, and died right when meeting with him.
This was not just mud falling into the pants; damn it, someone was outright defecating in his pants, and he had no choice but to admit it.
At this point, he had no choice but to send a painful message for help, asking other Gu Masters to come and assist.
Although the consequence of this would certainly be that the iron mine's profits would be shared with those who come to help, it was still better than losing everything.
But it was a pity for his Secret Medicine, originally intended to activate the Gu Poison imperceptibly when Fu Tingyuan breached the final barrier.
Now it seemed there would be no such opportunity.
The more the Golden Silkworm Gu Master thought, the angrier he became, wishing he could drag out and dismember the one manipulating events from the shadows.
But now it was too late to say anything, he could only sweep around and leave in anger.
The corpse of Zhan Feng on the ground was naturally ignored.
Once a formidable Second Village Chief of Cyan Bamboo Ridge, now he lay dead alone on a desolate mountain, without even someone to collect his corpse, indeed a miserable end.
After an unknown period, faint noises appeared from the foot of the mountain.
Suddenly, a figure silently appeared beside Zhan Feng's corpse, observing the surroundings before skillfully starting to search the body.
It was Zhao Ya.
Swiftly, he took everything from Zhan Feng's body, and then flipped him over.
Though not dead for long, the cold wind atop this mountain quickly froze him stiff.
Gazing at Zhan Feng's grotesque death face, Zhao Ya felt a great satisfaction in his heart.
The pent-up frustration from being hunted was swept away.
He never thought revenge was wrong, especially regarding matters of life and death.
Had he not been strong and quick-witted enough back then, leveraging some preparations for a desperate counterattack, he would have become a skeleton by now.
So whether it was Huo Tianxiao, Fu Tingfang, or this Zhan Feng, Zhao Ya killed without hesitation.
However, unlike Huo Tianxiao and Fu Tingfang, Zhan Feng died in the most humiliating way.
Because he didn't even know how he died.
Even the Golden Silkworm Gu Master and Duan Mengrui were frightened away by this unbelievable poisoning method.
But in reality, it wasn't as complicated as they imagined; Zhao Ya's poisoning method was not so sophisticated as to poison a person from dozens of meters away accurately.
Zhao Ya simply used a trick to make Zhan Feng fall for it.
Before infiltrating the hill, he had deliberately left drug bait on several roads into the mountains.
Anyone passing by would be poisoned.
And to prevent someone from leading the way and allowing Zhan Feng to escape unscathed,
or the medicine's effect occurring too soon or too late causing errors,
Zhao Ya deliberately added a trace amount of poison to the bait.
This poison was colorless and tasteless, weak when used alone but highly volatile, hence very suitable as a drug guide.
To trigger the poison in Zhan Feng, just opening a bottle upwind would be enough—quite convenient.
The result was very satisfactory; Zhan Feng died, Duan Mengrui was scared away, and the Golden Silkworm Gu Master, with no other choice, had to start a war.
Now, the road leading into the mountain suddenly burst into flames, followed by the sound of fighting.
"Refining World Sect people have rebelled!"
"Kill these thieves!"
This was shouted by those from Cyan Bamboo Ridge.
At the same time, someone sinisterly laughed, "Charge into the Central Courtyard Stronghold and capture Fu Tingyuan alive!"
"The first one to rush in gets a reward of five thousand taels!"
This was from Refining World Sect.
The Golden Silkworm Gu Master only took a few moments to assemble a group.
And most of them came from outside, suggesting that the Golden Silkworm Gu Master or Refining World Sect had long been prepared.
Not only that.
Killing shouts were being heard all over Cyan Bamboo Ridge.
These were Cyan Bamboo Ridge people secretly bought by Refining World Sect also launching attacks.
For a moment, the entire Cyan Bamboo Ridge was thrown into chaos.
Zhao Ya stood on the hill looking down at this scene, a cold smile appearing on his face.
After two days of planning, he finally managed to exploit the conflict between the Refining World Sect and Cyan Bamboo Ridge, plunging this thriving bandit den into chaos.
But it still wasn't enough.
Zhao Ya turned and plunged into the darkness again, heading towards the back mountain mine area.
He remembered that the captured people of the Hong and Yang families were all imprisoned in the mine, along with nearly half of the residents of Wuxiang City.